My car history Bangernomics.. What to do - Mondeo zetec S V6
Discussion
First of all , a quick hello and intro from me. Iv been here a while now and thought id take some time to contribute and also get some advice on my dilemma.
So here goes, are we sitting comfortably
Current list of fine automobiles owned ( some fine, some clearly not).
Nova 1.3 sr- Lasted 3 months before lost the back end on a diesel spillage. - Dead.
Back in 1994 these were the choice of car for someone like myself who wanted to pay no more than 1k on insurance, I dread to think of people these days who pay 4k these days .. yikes..
I must have looked at around 10 others afterwards and spent many a weekends travelling at tired crappy examples listed in auto-traders finest. I can clearly remember every Thursday picking up a fresh copy and a working pen was a mist have lol.
No pictures of this bad boy unfortunatelly, ice blue meallic, mildly modifed. Ended up almost on its roof. Lets move on!!
So here goes, are we sitting comfortably
Current list of fine automobiles owned ( some fine, some clearly not).
Nova 1.3 sr- Lasted 3 months before lost the back end on a diesel spillage. - Dead.
Back in 1994 these were the choice of car for someone like myself who wanted to pay no more than 1k on insurance, I dread to think of people these days who pay 4k these days .. yikes..
I must have looked at around 10 others afterwards and spent many a weekends travelling at tired crappy examples listed in auto-traders finest. I can clearly remember every Thursday picking up a fresh copy and a working pen was a mist have lol.
No pictures of this bad boy unfortunatelly, ice blue meallic, mildly modifed. Ended up almost on its roof. Lets move on!!
colinevan said:
First of all , a quick hello and intro from me. Iv been here a while now and thought id take some time to contribute and also get some advice on my dilemma.
So here goes, are we sitting comfortably
Current list of fine automobiles owned ( some fine, some clearly not).
Nova 1.3 sr- Lasted 3 months before lost the back end on a diesel spillage. - Dead.
Back in 1994 these were the choice of car for someone like myself who wanted to pay no more than 1k on insurance, I dread to think of people these days who pay 4k these days .. yikes..
I must have looked at around 10 others afterwards and spent many a weekends travelling at tired crappy examples listed in auto-traders finest. I can clearly remember every Thursday picking up a fresh copy and a working pen was a mist have lol.
No pictures of this bad boy unfortunatelly, ice blue meallic, mildly modifed. Ended up almost on its roof. Lets move on!!
So you owned 1 car and it was 21 years ago? So here goes, are we sitting comfortably
Current list of fine automobiles owned ( some fine, some clearly not).
Nova 1.3 sr- Lasted 3 months before lost the back end on a diesel spillage. - Dead.
Back in 1994 these were the choice of car for someone like myself who wanted to pay no more than 1k on insurance, I dread to think of people these days who pay 4k these days .. yikes..
I must have looked at around 10 others afterwards and spent many a weekends travelling at tired crappy examples listed in auto-traders finest. I can clearly remember every Thursday picking up a fresh copy and a working pen was a mist have lol.
No pictures of this bad boy unfortunatelly, ice blue meallic, mildly modifed. Ended up almost on its roof. Lets move on!!
Ok , car number 2.
Fiat punto 1.1s It was a brand spanker 1996 P reg..
Oh no , i suppose it all went wrong for me here. My parents at the time were not too happy that my first nippy car ( was the 90s rememebr lol) almost ended my life and so were heavily insistent on a low powered car to learn how to drive.
After much time spent I happenned to see a Fiat dealership selling these off at a nice price and they looked the part.
Colour coded bumpers, alloys, sunroof all for £7k
Deal done, Fiat pcp - £80 a month lol.
Pics to be uploaded.
Had a funny tale with my newly acquired Fiat almost straight away, decided to jet wash my 1 week old car as it was getting grubby. Lovely jet wash took off almost half the paint on the back bumper and looked a right mess. I later realized my punto was actually a basic punto that the dealership had commissioned a local body shop to coulour coded the naturally standard black bumpers . Can anyone remember the horrid 2 tone black plastic colour.
I took the car back to the dealership and heres where things went wrong again. They gave me there faster 1.6 punto sporting in broom yellow which was leagues ahead of my crappy 1.1.
Oh well, you can see whats coming next lol. Yep , I didn't want to hand the car back .
Freshly painted with the warning never to jet wash the car again and an explination as to what happenned. The proper factory jobby had black strips that protruded from the bumper, My boggo standard had masked lines and original bumper colour which wasn't really good enough for a pressure washer . looking back, I should have told them to do things properly, however i was a young 18 year old and was happy that they at least rectified the bumper.
Had a few other traumas with the car, woke up one morning to find out someone had nicked the 13" alloys . I wasnt too gutted as they were crap and i quickly replaced them with some nice 15" 5 spokes with 195 50 15 which improved the handling by about 200 percent. Standard suspension could see the rear wheel lift off the ground just like the touring cars when pushing on fast bends .
2 years of ownership, i chopped her in after losing a ridiculous amount of money.
Fiat punto 1.1s It was a brand spanker 1996 P reg..
Oh no , i suppose it all went wrong for me here. My parents at the time were not too happy that my first nippy car ( was the 90s rememebr lol) almost ended my life and so were heavily insistent on a low powered car to learn how to drive.
After much time spent I happenned to see a Fiat dealership selling these off at a nice price and they looked the part.
Colour coded bumpers, alloys, sunroof all for £7k
Deal done, Fiat pcp - £80 a month lol.
Pics to be uploaded.
Had a funny tale with my newly acquired Fiat almost straight away, decided to jet wash my 1 week old car as it was getting grubby. Lovely jet wash took off almost half the paint on the back bumper and looked a right mess. I later realized my punto was actually a basic punto that the dealership had commissioned a local body shop to coulour coded the naturally standard black bumpers . Can anyone remember the horrid 2 tone black plastic colour.
I took the car back to the dealership and heres where things went wrong again. They gave me there faster 1.6 punto sporting in broom yellow which was leagues ahead of my crappy 1.1.
Oh well, you can see whats coming next lol. Yep , I didn't want to hand the car back .
Freshly painted with the warning never to jet wash the car again and an explination as to what happenned. The proper factory jobby had black strips that protruded from the bumper, My boggo standard had masked lines and original bumper colour which wasn't really good enough for a pressure washer . looking back, I should have told them to do things properly, however i was a young 18 year old and was happy that they at least rectified the bumper.
Had a few other traumas with the car, woke up one morning to find out someone had nicked the 13" alloys . I wasnt too gutted as they were crap and i quickly replaced them with some nice 15" 5 spokes with 195 50 15 which improved the handling by about 200 percent. Standard suspension could see the rear wheel lift off the ground just like the touring cars when pushing on fast bends .
2 years of ownership, i chopped her in after losing a ridiculous amount of money.
Car number 3.
New broom Yellow Fiat punto sporting 1.2 16v
This was the last of the old shape on a 99 T reg.
Bought new from a dealer in bedford, My step Mum works for the Co op group who used to own a few dealerships . From memory an employee of Co op could buy a cAr with a whopping 30 percent off. Choice of either Nissan of Fiat.
This was also the time manufacturers were trying smaller engined cars and upping the power up.
This mild hot hatch went from the std 1.6 8 valve 90 bhp to a 1.2 16v 86 bhp. around 11k from memory.
Nothing spectacular with this car what so ever, to be honest after 2 years behind the wheel of a 55hp car that looked reasonable, the only thing this one had was the ability to rev and make a nice sound. Especially after adding an induction kit.
Next...
New broom Yellow Fiat punto sporting 1.2 16v
This was the last of the old shape on a 99 T reg.
Bought new from a dealer in bedford, My step Mum works for the Co op group who used to own a few dealerships . From memory an employee of Co op could buy a cAr with a whopping 30 percent off. Choice of either Nissan of Fiat.
This was also the time manufacturers were trying smaller engined cars and upping the power up.
This mild hot hatch went from the std 1.6 8 valve 90 bhp to a 1.2 16v 86 bhp. around 11k from memory.
Nothing spectacular with this car what so ever, to be honest after 2 years behind the wheel of a 55hp car that looked reasonable, the only thing this one had was the ability to rev and make a nice sound. Especially after adding an induction kit.
Next...
Car number 4..
Things get a little interesting now.
1999 Bmw 318is sport .
This was up for sale local to me, few years old. A lot of invoices from the stealers and had a ridiculous amount of money spent on AC Schnitzer goodies.
Let the pics do the talking on this one.
I do miss this car...
Things get a little interesting now.
1999 Bmw 318is sport .
This was up for sale local to me, few years old. A lot of invoices from the stealers and had a ridiculous amount of money spent on AC Schnitzer goodies.
Let the pics do the talking on this one.
I do miss this car...
Edited by colinevan on Wednesday 7th October 22:47
Edited by colinevan on Wednesday 7th October 22:49
Car had something like 7k of receipts all from Bmw, looked amazing and was pretty insurance friendly.
Previous owner had it featured in a few magazines with an enormous stereo fitted and expensive interior.
From what i gather he was a young 18 year old and needed a cheap to insure car, money no object on modyfying resulted in what was probably one of the most expensive 318is going around at the time.
The only issue it had was it looked 300 bhp, sadly it wasn't, not while I owned it anyhow.
I had a query over something on the servicing and had the number for the previous owner, I called him and he told me he actually fitted an M3 3.0 lump at one point lol. The car was well known on bmw forums and tthis was one car i truly miss.
Next on the cards..
Previous owner had it featured in a few magazines with an enormous stereo fitted and expensive interior.
From what i gather he was a young 18 year old and needed a cheap to insure car, money no object on modyfying resulted in what was probably one of the most expensive 318is going around at the time.
The only issue it had was it looked 300 bhp, sadly it wasn't, not while I owned it anyhow.
I had a query over something on the servicing and had the number for the previous owner, I called him and he told me he actually fitted an M3 3.0 lump at one point lol. The car was well known on bmw forums and tthis was one car i truly miss.
Next on the cards..
Decided i could justify running an M3 for a year.
Theses are by no means cheap cars to run, buying is the easy bit. I did a lot of research and was prepared to compromise on everything to get a mechanically good one.
I only had one requirement and it needed to be a coupe.
My ideal spec would be estoril blue, black leather and that means the later evo spec. I could go down the route of the older 3.0 car if something special came up.
Ended up buying the below example.
A few pics......
Took a 400 mile trip to Scotland in her and had a seized caliper on the fast roads resulting in dead pad and disc. No bangernomics with thius car so replaced all 4 with Black diamond as was informed for the money it was a nice upgrade. Not cheap for a performance car and i think there wasnt much change from £600 at the time including caliper.
I had a few oil changes in the car and always changed the vanos filter at the same time. My car was mechanically sound , but was getting up on the miles at near 110k from memory. I bought her as she felt tight although the bodywork wasn't perfect. I Thing it paid off as nothing else was needed on the car in my ownership.
A visit to Leicester for a bmw meet up gave me the opportunity to drive another evo that had just had full suspension renew and bushes throughout. It felt tighter than mine but power wise was pretty much the same.
I priced up a full suspension refresh and bushes , ouch! Might have to be a long term gradual project.
On the way back , a slight rumble occurred from underneath. A new guibo "donut" was required to quiet out the prop shaft and we were good to go.
Car was sold as a house purchase was on the cards..
Lets start with the bangernomics now.
Theses are by no means cheap cars to run, buying is the easy bit. I did a lot of research and was prepared to compromise on everything to get a mechanically good one.
I only had one requirement and it needed to be a coupe.
My ideal spec would be estoril blue, black leather and that means the later evo spec. I could go down the route of the older 3.0 car if something special came up.
Ended up buying the below example.
A few pics......
Took a 400 mile trip to Scotland in her and had a seized caliper on the fast roads resulting in dead pad and disc. No bangernomics with thius car so replaced all 4 with Black diamond as was informed for the money it was a nice upgrade. Not cheap for a performance car and i think there wasnt much change from £600 at the time including caliper.
I had a few oil changes in the car and always changed the vanos filter at the same time. My car was mechanically sound , but was getting up on the miles at near 110k from memory. I bought her as she felt tight although the bodywork wasn't perfect. I Thing it paid off as nothing else was needed on the car in my ownership.
A visit to Leicester for a bmw meet up gave me the opportunity to drive another evo that had just had full suspension renew and bushes throughout. It felt tighter than mine but power wise was pretty much the same.
I priced up a full suspension refresh and bushes , ouch! Might have to be a long term gradual project.
On the way back , a slight rumble occurred from underneath. A new guibo "donut" was required to quiet out the prop shaft and we were good to go.
Car was sold as a house purchase was on the cards..
Lets start with the bangernomics now.
Pug 306 dturbo 95 model
Bought this whilst i had the M3 , was a fab car and using the older mechanical style pump meant free upping of boost and lots of black smoke for a free increase in poiwer when required. Well actually it wasn't that easy but you get the idea.
Ironically not that great on fuel, but a lot better than the M3 which tended to be around 23 mpg
A few niggles with this car and it spent quite a few trips to my local mechanic fixing numerous broken items.
Experimented with bio diesel with no ill effects for a while so decided to have a go with veg oil.
No issues and was a good overall car until it failed its mot on read axle play.
I decided i didnt want to renew amd sold the car on cheap as an mot failure.
Bought this whilst i had the M3 , was a fab car and using the older mechanical style pump meant free upping of boost and lots of black smoke for a free increase in poiwer when required. Well actually it wasn't that easy but you get the idea.
Ironically not that great on fuel, but a lot better than the M3 which tended to be around 23 mpg
A few niggles with this car and it spent quite a few trips to my local mechanic fixing numerous broken items.
Experimented with bio diesel with no ill effects for a while so decided to have a go with veg oil.
No issues and was a good overall car until it failed its mot on read axle play.
I decided i didnt want to renew amd sold the car on cheap as an mot failure.
Needed something with a bit more comfort and a boot.
Really wanted an Audi A4 1.9 tdi 130 avant around 51 plate
However these were all around 6 to 7k at the time and i wanted to spend under 6 ideally.
The ones under budget were all dogs and that sme being nice. I bet i travelled around 500 miles over the period of a month and decided to take a look at a locally advertised bmw 320d tourung .
I was aware these drop swirl flaps due to the forums i used to frequent (e36coupe) and there was nasty stories emerging of dead engines which did put me off.
I went to see the car and was impressed so did a deal. Seller had it up for 6k and got a nice discount as he couldnt move it.
Car was a fully specced up company directors car with 127k which was high in my book. Being the 150 bhp model it had more oomph than the Audis and i was impressed by all hte option boxes ticked and the wad of bkw receipts.
I did a lot of miles in this car and it was perfect. I did frequent oil changes and replaced brakes and tyes as you do and i think it went through a set of springs, Had one hiccup which was partly my fault. The car had pressure warning control and would alert if pressure was lost or indeed a flat tyre.
I was travelling from Manchester to Aberdeen regularly and mid way noticed the pressure was dropping. Stopped off at motorway services near to Edinburgh from memory and attempted to top up with air from a rather worn out machine with a loose fitting nozzle. I had to press quite hard as it was leaking air badly and letting more air out than in. All of a sudden, snap and the valve disintegrated .
Sadly the valves are special and carry the sensors and were not kept in sotck at the local bmw dealers.
I changed to the spare and drove the extra 150 miles or so, with a tiny space saver at 50 mph with it pulling voilently to the left due to the difference in size.
I sold the car whilst it was perfect, I say this as usually people tend to sell cars when things go wrong with them - Or they do in my case !
I actually got scared thinking of what could potentially go wrong with the car over the next 2 years. Sold on 160k from memory for around 4k . Still on its original turbo, clutch, exhaust, injectors etc . A potential time bomb but stll a prefect car.
Really wanted an Audi A4 1.9 tdi 130 avant around 51 plate
However these were all around 6 to 7k at the time and i wanted to spend under 6 ideally.
The ones under budget were all dogs and that sme being nice. I bet i travelled around 500 miles over the period of a month and decided to take a look at a locally advertised bmw 320d tourung .
I was aware these drop swirl flaps due to the forums i used to frequent (e36coupe) and there was nasty stories emerging of dead engines which did put me off.
I went to see the car and was impressed so did a deal. Seller had it up for 6k and got a nice discount as he couldnt move it.
Car was a fully specced up company directors car with 127k which was high in my book. Being the 150 bhp model it had more oomph than the Audis and i was impressed by all hte option boxes ticked and the wad of bkw receipts.
I did a lot of miles in this car and it was perfect. I did frequent oil changes and replaced brakes and tyes as you do and i think it went through a set of springs, Had one hiccup which was partly my fault. The car had pressure warning control and would alert if pressure was lost or indeed a flat tyre.
I was travelling from Manchester to Aberdeen regularly and mid way noticed the pressure was dropping. Stopped off at motorway services near to Edinburgh from memory and attempted to top up with air from a rather worn out machine with a loose fitting nozzle. I had to press quite hard as it was leaking air badly and letting more air out than in. All of a sudden, snap and the valve disintegrated .
Sadly the valves are special and carry the sensors and were not kept in sotck at the local bmw dealers.
I changed to the spare and drove the extra 150 miles or so, with a tiny space saver at 50 mph with it pulling voilently to the left due to the difference in size.
I sold the car whilst it was perfect, I say this as usually people tend to sell cars when things go wrong with them - Or they do in my case !
I actually got scared thinking of what could potentially go wrong with the car over the next 2 years. Sold on 160k from memory for around 4k . Still on its original turbo, clutch, exhaust, injectors etc . A potential time bomb but stll a prefect car.
In a moment of madness i decided i wanted something cheap and fun with a bit of oomph. The bmw was great although a little refined lol.
I looked at a few golf gti's - 8v and 16v models mk2 and mk3 but all wanted money spending. And stumbled on a lady owner 65k 206 gti in burnt orange.
Not a bad car, few dints and scratches and was very honest. Cheap at £1400 at the time and i took her home.
On the way home the exhaust promptly almost split in 2 and sounded as loud as a vulcan jet. A quick check revealed it had simply slid apart with no damage . Later reveals that the exhaust fitter when replacing parts had cut the pipe too small and certain road combinations could allow the 2 parts to slide out uncoupling.- New exhaust on the cards.
Did a basic service at the stealers themselves as they could do a mini service for £79 which i thought was a good price. Nothing of concern and 6 month trouble free motoring ahead.
My new house at the time had a steep drive and the easiest way to use the drive was to reverse up with the car pointing nose down. I mention this as the car developed a mis fire that would not go away. I worked out when it rains, the rain runs down the bonnet and through the bonnet vent and onto the ecu and wires. Good design.
The mis fire gradually got worse and worse and so began the task of trial and error on finding the fault. A guy on ebay was selling new injectors and rail for £100 so i took a gamble and went down to his lock up.
He was a great chap to deal with and told me of how he is breaking cars as a bit of a spare time as he retired from a previous well paid job. \he literally buys accident damaged 206's gti and cabriolet format and makes a killing lol.
We swapped over the rail and injectors and went for a drive, no difference. We actually spend all afternoon swapping over bits n bobs and it makes no difference at all. The dealer was happy to try and help me and dint even charge me for his help. He told me he does this for something to do as early retirement has bored him lol.
Getting annoyed with another week of mis firing and juddering progressively getting worse i decide tio unplut every wire and connector in site and spray about half a can of wd40 all over the engine connectors and ecu. I leave the car for a few hours and re plug everything a few hours later and drive to work with it mis firing as per usual. Get on the motorway and to my amazement the juddering becomes less and less and in the space of 5 minutes its gone. I couldn't believe it - problem solved.
I ran the car for a few more months and decided to look out for something a little more practical.
Ideally an estate car, something cheap and something a little sporty..
I looked at a few golf gti's - 8v and 16v models mk2 and mk3 but all wanted money spending. And stumbled on a lady owner 65k 206 gti in burnt orange.
Not a bad car, few dints and scratches and was very honest. Cheap at £1400 at the time and i took her home.
On the way home the exhaust promptly almost split in 2 and sounded as loud as a vulcan jet. A quick check revealed it had simply slid apart with no damage . Later reveals that the exhaust fitter when replacing parts had cut the pipe too small and certain road combinations could allow the 2 parts to slide out uncoupling.- New exhaust on the cards.
Did a basic service at the stealers themselves as they could do a mini service for £79 which i thought was a good price. Nothing of concern and 6 month trouble free motoring ahead.
My new house at the time had a steep drive and the easiest way to use the drive was to reverse up with the car pointing nose down. I mention this as the car developed a mis fire that would not go away. I worked out when it rains, the rain runs down the bonnet and through the bonnet vent and onto the ecu and wires. Good design.
The mis fire gradually got worse and worse and so began the task of trial and error on finding the fault. A guy on ebay was selling new injectors and rail for £100 so i took a gamble and went down to his lock up.
He was a great chap to deal with and told me of how he is breaking cars as a bit of a spare time as he retired from a previous well paid job. \he literally buys accident damaged 206's gti and cabriolet format and makes a killing lol.
We swapped over the rail and injectors and went for a drive, no difference. We actually spend all afternoon swapping over bits n bobs and it makes no difference at all. The dealer was happy to try and help me and dint even charge me for his help. He told me he does this for something to do as early retirement has bored him lol.
Getting annoyed with another week of mis firing and juddering progressively getting worse i decide tio unplut every wire and connector in site and spray about half a can of wd40 all over the engine connectors and ecu. I leave the car for a few hours and re plug everything a few hours later and drive to work with it mis firing as per usual. Get on the motorway and to my amazement the juddering becomes less and less and in the space of 5 minutes its gone. I couldn't believe it - problem solved.
I ran the car for a few more months and decided to look out for something a little more practical.
Ideally an estate car, something cheap and something a little sporty..
Thanks for bearing with us, I'm currently almost up to date and made this purchase almost 5 years ago.
A lovely Mondeo zetec s in V6 format.
Car was up for sale for 2k and only had 65k on the clock.
pics are recent.
Car was only meant to be a run around until something else came up. Afterall spec wise these are not the most economical amd living in Manchester sees this doing a lot of stop start running. Actual figures state less than 20 mpg around town lol.
However in that time , nothing has gone wrong with it majorly , it had a spring and top mount and they were creaking and the spring had lost a coil resulting in it sitting lower on one side. Regular oil changes and its flew through all its mots with no advisories.
The only think letting the car down was the usual corrosion that comes with the chrome finished alloys. I decided to repaint these myslef and went for a darker anthracite colour. I got some satisfaction from doing this myself, however given the amount of time taken to fill and rub down all the corrosion its not something id do again in a hurry.
Primered in my shed
Rough idea on colour and finish
A lovely Mondeo zetec s in V6 format.
Car was up for sale for 2k and only had 65k on the clock.
pics are recent.
Car was only meant to be a run around until something else came up. Afterall spec wise these are not the most economical amd living in Manchester sees this doing a lot of stop start running. Actual figures state less than 20 mpg around town lol.
However in that time , nothing has gone wrong with it majorly , it had a spring and top mount and they were creaking and the spring had lost a coil resulting in it sitting lower on one side. Regular oil changes and its flew through all its mots with no advisories.
The only think letting the car down was the usual corrosion that comes with the chrome finished alloys. I decided to repaint these myslef and went for a darker anthracite colour. I got some satisfaction from doing this myself, however given the amount of time taken to fill and rub down all the corrosion its not something id do again in a hurry.
Primered in my shed
Rough idea on colour and finish
There not perfect and i never lacquered them as i prefer the matt finish.
They have been painted a while now ( 6 months ) and no sign of any flaking or issues.
The car has been perfect for what i need it for, 3 kids and 2 dogs . I can put up with the fuel consumption as in 5 years its only covered 25k so an average of 5k a year.
They make a lovely noise, are very smooth, no issues like the diesel version and are chain driven. I recently took her to Suffolk and back and she was perfect and managed 400 miles to a tank fully laden which i think is good going.
However there is an issue that's cropped up and im unsure what to do.
Last week i was travelling on the M62 on the outside lane doing outside lane speeds travelling up towards Leeds. Those that are familiar with this route will know there is a steep hill for several miles which takes you to the highest motorway in England. Car suddenly lost all its heat from the heaters and i saw the temp gauge creep up. At this point im in lane 4 , the traffic is busy and there is no hard shoulder. I take fut off accelerator, pull over the lanes as quick and as safely as possible and eventually the hard shoulder re appears.
You can see the lack of hard shoulder which i think has cost me my engine.
When i open the bonnet , engine had been tapping from the top of the engine. Engine is smoking and ridiculously hot. No coolant left and i can see coolant dripping out near the bottom of the radiator. I undo the cap, pressure is there and no liquid left. Slight smell of oil and i reckon head gasket has gone.
So leads me to my dilemma, a new head gasket, and bearing in mind the top end was rattling realistically means a new engine is the most cost effective way to repair. However im not sure on whether to bother.
Id love a new sleeper type of car, this stands me at practically nothing and realistically is only worth scrap money minus the good bits that people want ie bumpers, skirts, alloys and leather.
So i ask, what would you guys do, Nothing too extravagent, I would like to keep her but dont have the technical know how to swap an engine myself.
Is she worth saving, find another v6 lump or be brave and put something more exciting in her for s
ts and giggles lol.
They have been painted a while now ( 6 months ) and no sign of any flaking or issues.
The car has been perfect for what i need it for, 3 kids and 2 dogs . I can put up with the fuel consumption as in 5 years its only covered 25k so an average of 5k a year.
They make a lovely noise, are very smooth, no issues like the diesel version and are chain driven. I recently took her to Suffolk and back and she was perfect and managed 400 miles to a tank fully laden which i think is good going.
However there is an issue that's cropped up and im unsure what to do.
Last week i was travelling on the M62 on the outside lane doing outside lane speeds travelling up towards Leeds. Those that are familiar with this route will know there is a steep hill for several miles which takes you to the highest motorway in England. Car suddenly lost all its heat from the heaters and i saw the temp gauge creep up. At this point im in lane 4 , the traffic is busy and there is no hard shoulder. I take fut off accelerator, pull over the lanes as quick and as safely as possible and eventually the hard shoulder re appears.
You can see the lack of hard shoulder which i think has cost me my engine.
When i open the bonnet , engine had been tapping from the top of the engine. Engine is smoking and ridiculously hot. No coolant left and i can see coolant dripping out near the bottom of the radiator. I undo the cap, pressure is there and no liquid left. Slight smell of oil and i reckon head gasket has gone.
So leads me to my dilemma, a new head gasket, and bearing in mind the top end was rattling realistically means a new engine is the most cost effective way to repair. However im not sure on whether to bother.
Id love a new sleeper type of car, this stands me at practically nothing and realistically is only worth scrap money minus the good bits that people want ie bumpers, skirts, alloys and leather.
So i ask, what would you guys do, Nothing too extravagent, I would like to keep her but dont have the technical know how to swap an engine myself.
Is she worth saving, find another v6 lump or be brave and put something more exciting in her for s
ts and giggles lol.True but I do hanker for a fun car and this could be possibly made Into something that could give smiles and not cost the earth
I had to buy a car literally within a few hours as work and children and me could not survive without a car lol.
Replaced with another chrysler grand voyager.
3rd time lucky hopefully as these cars love to go wrong and miss behave.
I had to buy a car literally within a few hours as work and children and me could not survive without a car lol.
Replaced with another chrysler grand voyager.
3rd time lucky hopefully as these cars love to go wrong and miss behave.
If the car is otherwise in good shape and you like the car, I'd take the head off and see whats going on.
It seems a shame to scrap a car if all is gone is a head gasket, especially one that looks in decent shape and will most likely to plod on for a long time and it's not a bad base car if you want to up the power!
Why not take it to a garage and pay for the inspection before making any decisions?
Good luck anyway!
It seems a shame to scrap a car if all is gone is a head gasket, especially one that looks in decent shape and will most likely to plod on for a long time and it's not a bad base car if you want to up the power!
Why not take it to a garage and pay for the inspection before making any decisions?
Good luck anyway!
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